What's Going On With Bucky's Arm In Captain America: Civil War

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man. If you haven’t seen the film yet, we recommend clicking away to another one of our wonderful articles.

The majority of Ant-Man may have followed the adventures of Scott Lang as the tiny titular superhero, but it was the post-credits scene that looked ahead to Captain America: Civil War. In that scene, Falcon (who fought Scott earlier in the film) brought Captain America to a mysterious location where Bucky Barnes was being held. The former Winter Soldier’s metal arm appeared to be trapped, and while there was no explanation for how he got there, it was evidently something that required calling Ant-Man in to help. Now the actor playing Bucky, Sebastian Stan, has given a little more information on his character he ended up this way.

During an interview with Buzzfeed, Stan hinted that Bucky’s entrapment was due to a villainous party rather than somehow doing it to himself. Said the actor,

I think [what Bucky was caught in was] more of a vise. But it would never happen at his own hand, by his own doing.

He continued by saying that he’s read some of the ideas people have come up with in regard to what’s going on in the scene, but warned that things may not be as they seem on the surface. The only consolation at the moment is that it’s Bucky’s metal arm that’s stuck, so he doesn’t need to worry about losing his biological arm. Still, it sounds like it will be complicated to pry the metal arm off, and if they can’t get it out intact without endangering the rest of him, they may have to just cut it off and outfit him with a new metal arm. The benefit of that is the new appendage could be outfitted with cool 21st century spy technology, just like in the comics.

At the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Bucky seemingly broke free of HYDRA’s brainwashing when he saved Steve’s life after the rogue Hellicarriers were taken out. However, he still didn’t appear to be back to his normal self, judging by his expression as he looked at the memorial dedicated to him at the Smithsonian’s Captain America exhibit. Falcon and Captain America were still trying to find him during Avengers: Age of Ultron, but between then and Ant-Man, they came across information leading them to his current predicament. As for who put Bucky in that vice, two names that immediately spring to mind are Captain America: Civil War’s antagonists Baron Zemo and Crossbones - possibly because he plays some role in their plan to kill the Star Spangled Avenger.

When Captain America: Civil War is released on May 6, 2016, we’ll find out how Bucky escapes this tricky situation and who he will be allied with during the superhero conflict.